Sense & Sensibleness

Cousin's wife passed away on Saturday morning. She's 36yo, chirpy personality and, as my uncle describes, a brave person who endured braved a 2-year battle with breast cancer. And none of us knew of this.

We sat with my uncle, Uncle Jack, at the wake and though his eyes were a little red, he was upbeat and talked on and on. Cousin looked worn. He was occupied with other well-meaning visitors.

My uncle said some things which I want to remember:

#1 - Whenever Ah Gong (grandpa) calls him and asks him for something, Uncle Jack would agree even before Ah Gong completes the sentence. My grandpa is 95yo, practically blind and his hearing isn't good. So, as uncle put it, he has to deal with B-O-R-E-D-O-M as he can't watch TV or listen to the radio. Most of all, Uncle Jack says, do what you can now--don't regret on the day Ah Gong passes away.

#2 - "I'm an adventurous person. I've tried MANY things." Even as he related how he used to be a "tang kee" (spirit medium), he thinks it was all hypnotic trance-inducing hocus-pocus. Man of little fear he is.

It's not for me to compare my uncle with myself or my own dad. But there is much good sense to be caught for one's own life, wouldn't you say?

Kishi Bashi: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Kishi Bashi is the pseudonym of singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter K Ishibashi (born November 4, 1975). Born in Seattle, Washington, but growing up predominantly on the east coast, Ishibashi has recorded with and toured internationally as a violinist with such diverse artists such as Regina Spektor, Sondre Lerche, and most recently, the Athens, Georgia based indie rock group of Montreal, of which he is currently a member. Ishibashi is also the singer and founding member of the New York synth rock outfit, Jupiter One. In 2011, he started to record and perform as a solo artist, opening for Sondre Lerche, Alexi Murdoch, and of Montreal. He will support of Montreal on their upcoming spring 2012 tour. Ishibashi has a side project called Cop Gravy, he plans on releasing his first EP under this moniker on the Joyful Noise label in late 2012, it has the tentative title "I Lost My Wrestling Match To Davey Pierce On The Big Black Bus".

Read more on Wiki...

Positive Change

Truer than true, youer than you. Don't want to regret at the end of your life?

Could I have worked harder? Nah... Smarter? Oh yeah.

Spent more time with friends? Definitely.

Watched Coldplay's tribute to Adam Yauch and the lyrics went, you've gotta fight for your right to party.

Be remembered for what matters to you. Imagine your eulogy.

Live with joy, purpose &...gratitude.

Restitution

When you done wrong
when you took too long
Guilt lingers.
Where does closure come?

Expect scolding
Wrath
Words that...

Goodness me, what am I to do??

Forgiveness we all seek
Restitution I guess we should make.

Weekend in revue

This weekend marked the 10th anniversary of Sun's crossover project. We ended by singing the song, 愿意为你. Amazed I was by all that was shared. But most of all, what touched me was the love that Pastor has for Jesus. The willingness to obey, no matter how trying it can be.

You can't say, "Having done all" unless you've truly done & been through it all. And that will be the real test of your temerity & willingness.

Awoke to the same haunting chinese lyrics.

Caught Trainstopping: 2011 The Year In Review. Hilarious, well-delivered yet also suitably poignant in its recall of infamous events & phrases. A great beginning for this brand new company.

Now taking the train home as I type this. Public transport, essential, experienced everyday, taken for granted most of the time.

Real Life

Man approaches to ask for money - $1.50 - for supposed bus fare. I think he's begging to feed something else & I decline. He walks away & I notice he's got a decent looking watch on. He turns the corner & turns again onto the pavement in front. I look at him, he looks back & I look away. Suddenly I wonder about my safety and Singapore's supposed surreal safety.

Boy breaks loose from grandpa who's still holding his older sister's hand. He dashes a little onto the road while grandpa yells. Grandpa lurches forward, grabs him roughly & scolds him. All this while there's no traffic on the road. Sister's silent. I carry on walking.

Dad scrubs sweet potatoes with kitchen sponge. I think about the germs on the sponge. Now what would you do next?
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Identity

The way we talk, dress, move... The things we value, activities we do, the people we associate with... Our attitudes and perspective...

Alone or together, you see it.

The person you want to be. Who you see yourself as. What you want to embrace and pursue. Who you allow to speak into you and challenge you to transform your ways?

Get out of your own skin, yet be true to who you are--do you know who you are?

End Goal

Instead of asking what outcome is defined for one, how about asking what we want to see achieved?

The word's been given, hasn't it? Glimpses of the future are caught...

Should we quit asking what's next, but start planning what's next? Realisation, as long as you can still do something, didn't come too late.

What kind of change, movement, shift do you want to see? Don't stop there. See it? Outline it.

Follow your heart and you shouldn't go wrong. Divine correction brings you back on course if you veer off. Peer support makes it easier to get through. But you--you're the driver. Or co-driver, should I say?

Active is a state of keeping balance by moving forward--like unicycling, a friend recently shared. Forward, back, forward, side, forward for sure. Thoughts might be raw, views inchoate, but in time, character and conviction and right daily choices will see you to the end.

Polarizing

Why is it wrong to use public funds to profit a private entity even when it is expected to lead to public good? Why is it lamentable that the powers that be aren't doing enough to redistribute wealth to help the underprivileged? Why is it sad that iconic buildings that encapsulate memory and meaning are torn down to make way for new progressive developments?

Issues, problems that we tangle with daily, they demand solutions that are effective, sustainable and some would say, equitable. Whatever their interests, we elect leaders to lead us in the future. Yet no man-made governance is perfect, no man-leader is faultless.

I would say, collectively, intelligently, creatively, we together gotta each make a difference.

From awareness to being equipped to acting out your conviction to fine-tuning and constant innovation, positive change comes through...well, the heart, really.

What provokes you, stirs you, impassions you to action?

Value the good values that will ensure posterity.

Swift

Wine skin. Paradigm. Heart. Epoch. Underwear.

Figured the common denominator?

When the rules of the game gotta--What's the game anyway?

For profit? For social benefit? For staying above the water?

Beyond the novelty, what keeps one coming back for more? With many mouths & hearts to feed, who do you target?

Listen and feel the wind. What's rising? What's falling?

Learn to surf and ride the tide. Away the rip that pulls you under. New lands, new shores, new heights to conquer.

No music, did you realise?

Power is the capacity to apply your strengths as needed--or not needed.

At what point does a tortured soul turn maniacal? Tortured by others yet not seen by others. Without an other, what grinds and tests one's reasoning and maturity?

We don't always have an answer. We don't always need to know.

If I could fly...soar...speed...thrust through the air...can I escape gravity? Reality?

Morality, what a word. We don't need to philosophize, but what is good? Okay, too big a question. To what extent is it okay to expend or hurt something that seems trashy for the sake of getting and saving another of importance to you?

Moving through the day, activity, tasks, completion, progress...What gives one sufficient vision to realize where you actually are?

Awareness illuminates. Reach out with unseen hands and fix the pieces of your future. Muscles unused don't grow. Unused muscles will feel raw, weak, but given exercise AND nourishment, they grow.

Strength to strength, you can do more. Do what, you ask?

Liberty given, liberty lived. Don't be captive to the chains and weights that can be easily broken. Easily is not an easy word.

Turn on the music. Life should be enjoyable, fruitful and legacy-building.

King of the Lane

Come to terms with (fill in the blank). When a disruptive event occurs and you realize something precious to you is lost, the correct thing to do is to change, to adapt and to make reparations.

What if you can't?

What if, at that point, you start to see yourself for who you are, and the other in more clarity?

Then the ground gets pulled from under you...

Life is brief. Read Psalm 90.

Serving the needs and expectations of superiors and others is important, isn't it? When one's attitude is apparent for one to see...can't close eyes and shake it off...

Worthy of pursuit is--not activities with temporary gain--the realising of deep-seated purpose. Like rain reaching through the ground and meeting the water table.

Find that purposeful living and make it yours.

****prints in the sand

One night I had a wondrous dream.
One set of footprints there was seen,
the footprints of my precious Lord,
but mine were not along the shore.

But then some stranger prints appeared
and I asked the Lord, "What have we here?
Those prints are large and round and neat,
but, Lord, they are too large for feet."

"My child," he said in sober tones,
"For miles I carried you alone.
I challenged you to walk in faith,
but you refused and made me wait.

"You disobeyed, you would not grow.
The walk of faith you would not know.
So I got tired, I got fed up,
and there I dropped you on your butt.

"Because in life there comes a time
when one must fight and one must climb,
when one must rise and take a stand
or leave their butt prints in the sand."

Writer unknown

An Animated History of Human Communication

1965 Educational Film about the Telephone

People

This week, two people in the pool caught my eye as I lapped past them. One was a paraplegic with shrivelled legs who was swimming front crawl in an effortful manner. Maybe he's used to people staring, well, it takes some degree to guts and self-acceptance to bare himself like that.

The other man whom I didn't notice at first had a three-lined scar centred on his chest. I imagined the doctor cutting through below the rib cage and then snapping through the sternum. Explains why he was swimming slowly I guess. Perhaps recovering post-op.

Whatever that brought us to where we are, are we letting it have a stranglehold? A baggage that's familiarly heavy? A wound that we keep picking?

Maybe someone else is looking at you and wondering how you came to be. Maybe the scars or limitations aren't obvious... Are we living like they're there?

Live strong, I say.

Currently Reading - Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know by Robert Paarlberg

Holstee Manifesto

Thoughts of Artistry

It's about working with the gifting that we have, I told a friend yesterday over coffee.

Was Van Gogh's life a tragedy? Or more accurately, a tragic life that left a deep legacy that will continue to affect thousands? Plagued--yes, constantly wracked and worn--by insanity, talented before his time, loved and supported by his loved one to pursue his art... Makes you wonder what's the best way to leave this world? ...and the best way to live in this world?

Dare we pursue what we're created for? What if there's no promise of success and prosperity and all the comfortable markers of making it in society?

Reading T.L. Friedman's books and watching programmes which lay out the case against rampant globalization, ravaging of the natural environment, nature ravaging us in turn, the ill-privileged poor, it really makes one wonder what one is doing to tackle or at least acknowledge social problems around us?

If I want to leave a legacy that ripples and that future artists can leverage, what must I do?

Find a cause--or let it find you. Gather up courage. Stir up creativity within, sometimes without. Then carry on!

Thing is, we are who we are. Like Elphaba, green as can be, yet finding home and ease in a city as green as she. Each needs acceptance, to be hugged and embraced by people. Finding our place, no matter how quirky or unique we think we are.

And remember this, the human spirit is indefatigable, even in death--that is, if he or she so chooses. What makes one give up? What makes another persist?

Rise above your feelings, rally up your daily passion, and be the artist you were meant to be!

Let Go

By Jess Penner

are we or are we not hanging like icicles from the rooftops we are growing in the cold taking shape and taking hold because this is our time now

I know that things are so different than you imagined but you imagined so donʼt stop now because weʻre gonna see the dream before we drop drop drop drop down drop drop drop drop down oh oh

let go let go let go itʼs gonna be ok ok I know weʼre gonna fall fast yeah but then real slow youʼre gonna find your wings have finally grown (let go let go let go)

I swear I swear sometimes youʼre just so serious itʼs like youʼd crack your face with a smile If you forget yourself for a while the world might crumble in

let go let go let go itʼs gonna be ok ok I know weʼre gonna fall fast yeah but then real slow youʼre gonna find your wings have finally grown (let go let go let go)

are we or are we not hanging like icicles from the rooftops we are growing in the cold taking shape and taking hold because this is our time now